Investor Kevin O'Leary, known from the television show Shark Tank, announced a data center development called Wonder Valley on 40,000 acres north of Great Salt Lake in Box Elder County, Utah, backed by a dedicated gas power plant projected to generate 9 gigawatts of electricity. Box Elder County commissioners approved the project unanimously but were officially informed it was coming only five weeks before the vote, and neighboring landowners, including rancher Tim Munns, said they had received no formal notification at all. O'Leary publicly accused online critics of being funded by China, then later retracted the claim, and he and Fox News were subsequently sued for defamation by Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Gabrielle Finlayson, and Joshua Kanter. O'Leary Digital CEO Paul Palandjian, after describing himself as transparent, responded to interview requests through a lawyer threatening legal action over false statements.
The Wonder Valley project illustrates how developers are bypassing normal community engagement processes to fast-track large-scale data center approvals, with county commissioners given only five weeks notice before a vote on a project spanning 40,000 acres. The resulting defamation lawsuit and public backlash set a precedent for how local opposition can escalate when residents and officials feel excluded from decisions about major infrastructure projects.
The Verge's framing of 'The People of Utah vs. Kevin O'Leary' signals organized community opposition to the proposed SMR-powered data center campus, which is a distinct and newsworthy angle from the construction announcement itself. This community-vs-developer conflict at this scale is highly relevant to Digest readers tracking opposition trends.